574
Challenging Immigration Detention
Challenging Immigration Detention
Saturday, 21 July 2018: 14:30-16:20
Location: 701B (MTCC SOUTH BUILDING)
RC31 Sociology of Migration (host committee) Language: English
Governments across the world have increasingly relied on the detention of immigrants as a means to control the movement of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers. But detention -- the deprivation of liberty of non-citizens because of their undocumented or irregular status -- is fraught with numerous social problems and gross injustices. Not only do states often ignore their international human rights obligations during detention operations and devote massive public finances to detention operations, there are also grievous repercussions on people’s well-being, families, and communities. A day does not pass without a new report of a broken family, wasted public monies, and even death at the hands of overzealous and often poorly trained officials. By all accounts, immigration detention is not only going away; it is expanding to new countries. Concerted resistance to this practice is also growing. A chorus of immigrant-rights activists, lawyers, and public intellectuals has risen to contest the unjust detention of non-violent people and have demanded that basic human rights of immigrants and their families be respected. Such efforts face bureaucratic inertia, moneyed interests, and entrenched racism. This panel outlines the key issues, challenges, and limited successes in changing immigration detention practices throughout the world.
Oral Presentations